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Is SAP Number One No Matter What?

by Kristen Kohrt

July 27, 2010

I had my 10-year class reunion this past weekend. In preparation, on the flight to my home state of Michigan, I recited to myself an abbreviated explanation of what I do for a living. My first answer to the inevitable “What do you do?” question was simple: “I work as an editor for an IT publishing company.” Very few people needed more detail, but one former classmate pressed further. And come to find out, this classmate, who works as an HR generalist for a major corporation, knew exactly what I was talking about!

Unfortunately, the U.S. division of her company doesn’t use SAP ERP HCM… yet. They use it in all the other departments and in the HR departments of their European branches, but the HR department in the U.S. has yet to switch over. Classmate said they’d like to switch over to SAP, however they’re hesitant. They’ve been using the same software for years (PeopleSoft, I think… I had a hard time hearing her over the music) and over those years, it has become incredibly customized. It would take a lot of time and resources to implement a whole new system and customize it to meet their requirements in the way their current system does.

So I just want to ask the loyal SAP professionals out there, what would you say to that? I know we’re not all sales people, but I’m just curious. I didn’t really know what to say, to be honest. On one hand, if it works, why change it? On the other hand, if there’s a better way, why not try it?